To ask retail staff your worst customer stories?

[JaneTheVirgin]

There's been an influx lately of people complaining about the most minor perceived slight from customer service staff when in reality what they deal with on a daily basis is 99% of the time worse than not kissing your backside for buying a £5 chicken or £2 nail polish.

So, current and former retail staff - who was your worst customer? What shit do you put up with daily?

*Disclaimer for the whiny and chronically offended, I'm not talking about ACTUAL terrible service, which does happen but at a much lesser rate than terrible customers treat staff on minimum wage.

I had a customer that turned into a stalker from 2003-2005.

That was the worst customer.

I worked retail as a teenager. I refused a sale to someone. Got called a racist word back...lovely

Used to work in a call centre so lots of examples of truly horrible offensive, shouty, cruel customers but the ones that stick in my mind are the really stupid and therefore funny ones:

• complaining that her dining table hadn't been delivered, main reason she was unhappy was that she had delayed the induction of her baby to get the table delivered. I mean really, get your priorities straight!
• complaining that after letting her little sod of a child run around the shop like a crazy thing, he'd bumped into a shelf of novelty pumpkin Halloween mugs that made noise when tipped. She was angry that not only had her poor little darling been hit by a falling cup but the damn cup had laughed at him!
• wanting a refund for a 3 year old ironing board that had broken when her toddler jumped on it. Went absolutely barmy on the phone F'ing and blinding at the top of her lungs about shoddy craftsmanship.

I was a manager in retail and worked all through the covid shitshow

It was awful! Customers were vile. Always

Left after 11 years service, best thing I ever did was get out

Drunk woman running round knocking things over, tearing down signs and punching the manager in the face. Before someone blames lockdown stress or COL crisis, that was about 20 years ago.

I used to work as a receptionist at a dentists office. We opened until 8pm on a Wednesday to cater to people that couldn’t get to the dentist during the day.

I was booking a woman in for her next orthodontic appointment when she stated ‘it’s got to be in the evening as late as possible because I can’t get away from work before 6pm’

Not a problem, I replied that I understood how hard it was to find later appointments due to work and not being able to get away, she looked me dead in the face and replied ‘yeah but I have a proper job, so it’s harder for me’.

I don’t know whether it slipped her mind for a moment that I was there at 8pm because it was my job or what, but needless to say she didn’t get an appointment for any time soon.

I also worked in a cafe where a lady ordered a cup of tea and some soup for lunch. When I asked how her meal was she replied with ‘it was a bit hot and very wet’ I nearly died laughing. Why did you order tea and a soup if you didn’t want it to be wet? So weird

I work in a charity shop, I had someone complain loudly and say they were going to complain to management (we have multiple stores) because .... we didn't have any black ties or white shorts in 16 inch collar! He's forgotten his funeral clothes and for some reason couldn't get the concept that we only had what was displayed and whilst we understood his predicament, we couldn't magic them. He then told me it was ridiculous we didn't have them and he was going to put in a formal complaint which he did, have head office a laugh I suppose

Not so much awful as downright weird. I was about 16 and working at Boots. An older woman came in and asked me about a product (antiseptic cream), then she started telling me that she had these 'little white lumps down below' but that she had 'never been with a man, so not sure if that's normal'. I directed her to the Pharmacist pretty sharpish.

My first job was in McDonald’s as a teenager, a drunk man came round the counter and started throwing burgers at us because he got angry about waiting for his order.

This was first thing in the morning.

The same McDonald’s made us clean the toilets with just spray and napkins, no gloves etc so it wasn’t just the customers that made it awful 😂

I was not loving it….

I suspect this was a dig at your phrasing - 'How was your meal?' rather than 'Did you enjoy your meal?' Probably one of those people who gets their knickers in a twist at perceived 'Americanisms' so responds as if to a literal British-English question.

A customer projectile vomited whilst I was serving her. It was on my forehead.

Worked in retail briefly many many years back but it was so awful I just block it out and can't remember much.

I worked in a high St bank, customer came in to withdraw £25k in cash so his gf can go shopping, I 'stupidly' asked for id, he shouted so loudly, what, how dare you, do you not know who I am?!

Apparently, he played football for Leicester City, how am I meant to know, dnt watch football!

Man came into the store where I worked and asked my colleague for 33 carrier bags to purchase. She questioned as to why he needed so many. We'd had a lot ofnthefts so maybe why she asked. He became very rude saying why shouldn't he have that many carrier bags and that it was none of her business so she called for the manager so the customer walked away.
Another customer was explaining why she was returning something, I said "no worries" she replied "I'm not worried, I'm not American!" in a snotty voice. I just stopped for a second, stared at her and then carried on in silence and she flounce off with her refund.

I don't doubt that many retail staff have terrible soul crushing experiences with rude or batshit customers, however if this is a response to the "are you sure you don't want perfume" thread then I don't recall any actual rudeness or abuse directed towards the sales staff. I did think the assumption on the part of the customer that the SA thought she smelt a bit absurd and ridiculous though. Gave me a good chuckle that thread did.

The woman who bought a suit back for a refund for some reason, shouting and screaming at us for the poor quality of the jacket (which was on the top of the bag and so the item we got out). We gave her the refund to get rid of her and then took the trousers out of the bag after she left. Crotch covered in period blood 😡

Sales staff in shops like Superdrug don't get paid by commission so if a customer says no to their hard selling tactics the sales staff don't lose out in any way. I get that they are required to do the hard selling by their manager, and much as I hate it I actually feel a bit sorry for them having to go through that same spiel with every customer . It must be very boring.

Oh and I left that job after someone else spat in my face because we refused to give her a refund on an item that she had been told was non refundable and it was written on the receipt that it was non refundable.

Worked in a spar during uni days. There was a (thankfully) infrequent customer who, the first time I "experienced" him, my male colleague jumped right over the till/bagging area, to go upstairs to the toilets so that he wouldn't have to serve this customer. Said customer smelt like he hadn't washed in.. I dunno.. maybe 15 years. Was a young man, probably in his 20s.

When he came to the till I was almost wretching. The smell lingered in the shop for ages once he had gone. Other customers even commented on the smell in the shop a while after he had gone. Turns my stomach thinking about it.

Supervisor in River Island when I was 17.

A woman came into the store wanting to return a pair of jeans. I can’t remember her reason for wanting to return it but she had no receipt so no proof of purchase. I said I could only exchange or give her a refund card. She said that was fine.

As I’m checking the jeans for any faults or anything like that, I saw that her dirty, stained knickers were still in the jeans. She snatched the jeans from my hands as quick as I’d seen her knickers and ran out of the store. I was so shocked and disgusted at the same time that I just burst out laughing once she left the shop.

I have so many other stories as I worked my way up to Assistant Store Manager in Office and Floor Manager at Gap before getting pregnant at 21. I’ve seen too many things😂 I’ll be back tomorrow!

Worked in a TGI Friday’s inside a shopping centre when I was 17-20. I could write a book about my time there. A few that stick out are:

• I served a premiership footballer and he left me a 1 pence piece as a tip.
• Some guy threw a bowl of pasta at me because the plate was “too hot” for his child.
• Received a head office complaint for saying “hi guys” when greeting a table to take their order. They found it offensive.
• Someone left a used tampon in a takeaway box under one of the tables.
• A drunk guy at the bar refused to leave when the bartenders told him he was too drunk to be served. He got really violent and started threatening everybody. We had to call the shopping centre security and the police.
• A table I was serving left without paying the bill so I had to take the flack from management for not being more “on the ball”.

Worked in a few clothing stores when I was at uni and dealt with:

• A creepy guy phoning the store asking if we sold leather skirts and breathing heavily down the phone. He would do this on a weekly basis and called from no caller ID so we couldn’t block the number.
• A young girl bought a set of underwear (I told her they would be non-returnable before she purchased) and about 20 minutes later her father marched in and demanded a refund as £15 for 3 pairs of knickers was too much. I refused as I said underwear are non-returnable. He argued with me back and forth until I gave in and refunded him via card. I stated it would take 3-5 working days to go back into your account. Then he started complaining and shouting “why did you take my money immediately but it will take 3-5 days to come back?”

That's horrendous! Please tell me they were prosecuted for assault.

I worked in a bank not long after the last financial crash when the base rate was dropping quickly and got to 0. We had multiple customers screaming aggressively at us on the counter because their savings were earning a lot less than they used to. 1. Their previous monthly interest earned had been equivalent to my monthly full time salary. 2. It's very unlikely that me as a minimum wage counter assistant set the bank of England base rate.

Agree with @Aqua20 about football players. One of their wives came in and was horrible to everyone, demanding everything instantly that just couldnt physcially happen as quickly as she wanted. Was almost satisfying when she was done for fraud a decade later.